Atonement Doctors

Can I help?

I'm David. Your new neighbour.

I'm here to see Miss Parsons.

-What's the name?

-Ian Rickman.

Yes, THAT Ian Rickman.

-Do you have an appointment?

-Yes. Just tell her I'm here.

Thank you for this. Not much of a welcome to the neighbourhood.

It's fine. We're nearly done.

I'll be late for surgery. I'm a nurse.

Better make sure you wash your hands before you treat any patients!

I'll be washing them in bleach after this lot.

-Where do you work? I'm new to the area.

-I work at the Mill Health Centre.

I ought to get myself registered. I might look you up.

-Where have you moved from?

-Preston.

-Nice.

Shame your boyfriend wasn't here to help you.

My fiance... He's going to be back this evening.

You're getting married? Very nice. Who's the lucky man?

Jimmi. He's a doctor. He's Welsh. He's lovely.

I better be going and cleaning up. Got patients waiting. I owe you one.

I'm sure you'll find a way to make it up to me.

PHONE BLEEPS

Mrs Chapman.

Thank you for your help. With the Mill's support, the event will be a great success.

I'm happy to help. It's a good cause.

If any of your staff want to volunteer or have questions,

-do feel free to give them my number.

-Thanks.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

-Julia?

-Mm-hm.

-Ian Rickman, what does he want?

He's organising a charity event. Lots of local surgeries are getting involved.

I'll send a memo round, see if any of our lot want to volunteer on the night.

-Do you know who he is?

-Yes.

-And you trust him?

He's asked me to be on the finance committee, so he won't get anywhere near the money we raise.

-What's the event in aid of?

-Early-onset Alzheimer's.

You've got to stop him.

-Lauren, it'll be fine.

-No, it won't!

Look. If you want to talk about this later, fine.

But this isn't the time or the place.

-Julia...

-You shouldn't leave the desk unattended.

Lauren!

-He can't be allowed to do this.

-He's just trying to help some charity.

He's a conman. He may have got away with it, but everyone knows what he is.

I'm not judging somebody because of tabloid rumours.

Vulnerable people need that money. What if he steals it? He's clever. He'll find a way.

What is the matter with you? I've never seen you like this before.

My grandmother suffered from it. Alzheimer's. She was only 55.

It destroyed my grandfather's life as well. Please, Julia.

If we helped this man and it went wrong, I couldn't bear it.

I'm very sorry. I didn't know.

This project is going to go ahead whether we like it or not.

Wouldn't it be better if we were involved?

-That way, we could keep an eye on things.

-Let me help then.

-Hmm?

-I want to volunteer. I'll be your assistant.

I'll have to think about that.

I'll get back to work. Sorry. It's just something I really care about.

PHONE RINGS

Hello...

OK, if it's just a quick vaccination. Send him in.

-KNOCK ON DOOR

-Come in.

Hi, it's Lauren Porter from the Mill.

Didn't expect to see you so soon.

It was meeting you that reminded me...

I'm about to go abroad and I forgot to get my vaccinations done.

-Where are you going?

-Africa.

-Big country.

-Madagascar.

-Ah. I loved the film.

-Huh?

You'll need to have Typhoid, Hepatitis A,

and speak to a doctor about anti-malarials. When are you going?

-Once I've settled into the new house.

-So you've not got anything booked?

No. I'm a spur of the moment man.

The hepatitis takes a couple of weeks before it can take effect.

I guess I'll just have to hang around for a fortnight then.

Which is good. Gives me a chance to get to know my new neighbours better.

-Julia sent me.

-I see.

I'm going to be her assistant. I was in the area, so thought I'd come and introduce myself.

-I'm Lauren.

-Ian.

-I know.

-You'd better come inside.

I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I'm sorry if I was short with you.

It can get tiring having strangers mistrust me on sight.

Can we start over? I don't blame you for being suspicious of me.

For some reason, it's never the decent people who have protesters outside their house.

That man outside is an unfortunate consequence of events beyond my control.

-Oh, I see. What's his name?

-Eh?

The man outside. What's his name?

There's several of them. They posted my address on the internet.

-They take it in turns, sitting there and trying to embarrass me.

-How are they doing?

-Pretty well.

Look, this gala is very important to me.

I don't want any bad feeling amongst the people helping out.

So, please, just give me a chance. Can you do that?

-I'll try.

-In which case, I'm glad to welcome you to the team.

-Perhaps you'd like to meet my wife while you're here?

-Is she involved as well?

Surely Julia explained?

I'll introduce you.

Maybe then, you'll understand why this project is so important to me.

Don't worry. I've been accused of many things in the press, but being a serial killer isn't one of them.

Thanks for fitting me in at such short notice.

I was late, so I needed to make up the time.

Sorry, is this your lunch break? Let me buy you a sandwich.

-No, thank you.

-As a thank you for staying behind.

I've got to get on. You can pull your sleeve down.

-Hey, how is it working with your fiance?

-Sorry?

You said he was a doctor. Presumably, he works here an' all?

No, he doesn't. He works somewhere else. Somewhere far from here.

But you still live together. That's nice.

I've got to get on.

OK. Well, I will catch you later.

You've got a visitor.

This is Lauren.

-It's best to try and behave normally.

-Hello, Heather.

It's all right, love.

Some days are better than others.

Lauren wants to help out with the show.

Do you remember me telling you about it? The show in the theatre with singers and dancers,

-like you used to love.

-Be quiet!

We'll go in the other room. It'll be easier to talk in there.

-Does she remember you?

-Some of the time.

The shame is that it's better when she can't.

I don't want her remembering her husband as a man hounded by the press,

spat at by strangers in the street.

Her forgetting, in a terrible way, it's a blessing.

For you, or for her?

Heather is my purpose in life now. She's all that matters.

You look great.

Do you buy all your mistresses flowers?

To us.

This feels wrong.

You could always leave.

I know it's too late for Heather, but maybe one day in the future,

other couples won't have to go through this. That's why I'm doing it.

I want to believe you.

My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's.

-She was young. It was awful.

-I'm very sorry to hear that.

If I thought the money was going to anyone other than to the people that need it...

That won't happen. I'm just organising the show. Calling in favours. Getting the ball rolling.

Every penny of the money raised is going to go towards research

and care for people who don't have the resources that Heather and I do.

I've seen that look so many times before.

Distrust. And all because of something I didn't do.

I just need people to give me a chance.

-You've nothing to hide?

-No.

-So prove it.

-How?

-That's the maddest thing I've ever heard.

-I mean it!

Compulsory meditation in schools?

Young people don't know how to live in the moment any more.

They want life at a hundred miles an hour.

They bring energy drinks to school in their lunchbox and then their parents come to me

and insist there's a medical reason why they can't concentrate.

I just think that if everyone was more mindful...

-There'd be no more wars and everyone would be happy all the time?

-Yes!

No. I don't know. I just think it's important.

I'm the full new-age package. The door's over there.

I'm not going anywhere. I love your spirit. You're so vibrant. Alive.

I guess your wife's more conventional then?

-Let's not talk about her.

-I don't see how we can talk about anything else.

Everything I say, you'll be comparing us.

Am I sexier, funnier, more intelligent?

-I just wanted to have lunch with you.

-I'm right though, aren't I?

This is not some cheap affair.

I've told you, things are finished between Fiona and I.

I know this game. I understand the rules.

Maybe I don't want to play.

This is not some game I'm playing with you.

I just need a chance to prove that.

-This is Martin Richards.

-Hello, Martin.

Would you like a drink?

Five months, I've been sat outside your house.

This is the first time you've acknowledged I exist.

Mr Rickman is organising a charity concert.

-Why am I here?

-I want to believe that he's doing it for the best of reasons,

that everything I've read about him is wrong.

I want to see him look you in the eye and tell you that what happened wasn't his fault.

That it was all a terrible mistake and he's trying to make up for it.

For our own reasons, that's something we both need to hear.

I didn't know what was going on with my executives.

I wasn't aware that the structure of my company was unsustainable.

I wasn't involved in the running of the investment department and had no knowledge

of the illegal activities some staff were engaged in.

I've heard that speech before. You said it in court.

-That's not what I want to hear.

-What do you want?

-I want you to say sorry.

-I won't admit responsibility for something I didn't do.

I had a wife. A beautiful wife.

We invested all our savings in your company.

Every single penny we'd worked to save, gone overnight.

When I lost my job, I told Claire we'd be all right. We had savings.

Then we got the letters from the receivers. And now Claire's gone.

You took everything that mattered to me, and somehow, you still live in this big house

and you don't even have the decency to say sorry.

What's going on? Who are you? What are you doing in my house?!

It's all right, love. It's just Lauren. You remember Lauren? You met her in the other room.

Who are you? What are you doing in my house?

He's a...friend. Aren't you?

-Friend? Whose friend? He's not my friend.

-Why don't we go back in the other room?

-Who is he? What's he doing in my house?

-It's OK, it's all OK.

-Thanks. My turn.

-No, I insist.

-What?

-Use cash.

No paper trail for your wife to find.

I knew it was a waste of time.

-So why do you sit outside here every day?

-I've nowhere else to be.

She's settled.

If you're still talking to me.

-Can I use your loo?

-Of course.

Very kind of you to walk me home.

Nobody feels safe walking home in the middle of the afternoon(!)

I should warn you, I haven't got any coffee in the house, so I can't offer you any.

-Caffeine's bad for you.

-Shame. You know, I could murder a cup of camomile.

Find anything incriminating? Where did you look? My study?

-What did you think you'd find in five minutes?

-You're a businessman.

Surely, you know the importance of seizing the opportunity. What do you keep in the safe?

-My, you were thorough.

-What do you keep in it?

-Private things.

-Like?

Owning a safe is not a crime.

It's just something that people with a lot of money tend to have.

I want the Mill to help get this project off the ground. I've bent over backwards to prove myself.

I think I've been exceptionally tolerant. And how do you repay me?

You try to humiliate me and you sneak around my house like a thief!

-This illness is something I feel very passionate about.

-Then we do have something in common.

So I forgive you for nosing where you shouldn't.

I never said sorry.

-'Get away from me!

-Don't go any further.

-'It's not safe!

-Let me go!'

-Get away from me!

-Don't go any further! It's not safe!

-Don't touch me!

-Thank you.

Why did you let her wander out alone? It's not safe!

-She must have figured out the gates.

-What would have happened if I hadn't been here?

-This way, love.

I help you, now you walk away from me again!

After all the respect you showed for my family, I should have left her to wander off into the road!

Be quiet! Where's your humanity? This woman is ill.

Whatever he did, it's not her fault!

I didn't think you'd actually drink the tea.

-Nice house.

-Surprised you haven't asked for a tour of the bedrooms yet.

-Stop it.

Whoa!

-It's what we're here for, isn't it?

-I'm here for you.

I know how this works.

Not with me. This time, it'll be different.

-How are you finding it?

-Our affair?

-No! Our book.

-Oh. Everyone's raving about it,

but personally, I can't see what all the fuss is about.

I'm trying to figure out if you're a very fast or a very slow reader.

-What do you mean?

-Your bookmark is right near the beginning.

Either you read a page a day, or you've read it

and gone back to the beginning.

I was thinking I might find something I missed first time around.

-Ah. Hidden depths?

-Yes.

Figured you'd need a drink.

-It's all right.

-She's watching TV again.

Will it always be this hard?

Thank you. Outside, just now...

That's the first time someone's stood up for me in a long time.

Your wife shouldn't suffer because of your mistakes.

Sometimes, I wonder how much longer we can live like this.

-I don't think you have much choice.

-There's always a choice.

What do you mean?

You can trust me.

There's a cocktail of drugs in the safe.

I paid someone to bring them over from Switzerland.

They're illegal here, but it's what they use in the clinics there.

-To end things?

-Yes. Painlessly.

There's enough for two.

People cope with illness. They find a way.

Why should we spend the rest of our lives suffering?

I know you're hurting because of what's happened to Heather,

but that doesn't excuse you from the mistakes you've made.

What's happened to her is terrible, but it's not your fault.

The man sitting outside, alone in the street...he is, isn't he?

Where are you going?

Sorry.

I'm sorry for what I did to you.

"Drake looked between the amulet and the girl he loved,

"knowing he could save only one.

-"There was no choice. It had to be...the scarlet amulet."

-Yes!

This is the first lesson they teach you in archaeology school.

Go on.

I said sorry to him.

Are you OK?

SIRENS WAIL He phoned the police!

I did the decent thing and he betrayed me!

-He can't prove what I said to him.

-How does it feel?

-What?

Getting a taste of your own medicine.

-I tried to help him!

-People trusted you and you lied to them. You cheated them.

I don't mind so much about losing my savings.

Well...no, I do, but it's not what really stings.

It's that you fooled me, and nobody does that.

-YOU phoned the police?

-Your wife's going to get the care she deserves from now on.

-What do you mean?

-You tore the heart out of so many families.

Now, I'm going to take something important from you. How do you think the police will react

when they find an illegal cocktail of drugs in your safe?

Won't think you're the ideal carer now, will they?

They can't be too careful with vulnerable patients.

Need to make sure they're safe.

You took the chain off the door. You opened the gates.

She could have been killed! BANG ON DOOR

-'It's the police. Open up!'

-More proof that you're not capable of caring for her.

-I trusted you.

-That was a mistake. How does it feel? The humiliation.

Someone pulling the wool over your eyes.

-BANGING ON DOOR

-'Mr Rickman? We know you're there.'

He's in the study, destroying the evidence.

Shall we go upstairs?

Lauren, thought you might like to know that we won't be helping out Ian Rickman after all.

-What do you mean?

-A friend of mine at the police station called. He's been arrested again.

-Your instincts were right.

-Some people, you just can't trust.

Just as well you didn't have to spend any time with him.

-I don't know how you'd have felt.

-What?

-Because of your grandmother.

-Oh. Yes.

We must stop meeting like this.

I just need to ask you a few questions about the neighbourhood.

What's wrong? Aren't we friends?

Do you need a hand with that? We need to talk.

SHE SCREAMS

Cherry?

Are you in?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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